All Articles Tagged round robin

[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! Full contest rules here!]

The iPhone 3G doesn’t have a task manager. It doesn’t have a registry. It doesn’t have a sliding keyboard. It doesn’t have a start menu. It doesn’t have Pocket IE. And most egregiously of all — it doesn’t have a stylus!

Will that be the feature that breaks our Editor-in-Chief’s Windows Mobile back? Or will the ultra-modern OS and buttery smooth UI restore his childlike sense of wonder? Head on over to WMExperts to read his ultimate opinion, and — if he deserves it — give him a bag of hurt, TiPb style!

Be sure to comment both here and on Dieter’s review — on all of our sites — so you can try to win as many smartphones and accessory bundles as possible!

What’s next? Crackberry Kevin gets my beloved iPhone this week! Will he even know how to type on a touchscreen? (No Storm jokes!). He’s asking for your assistance in TiPb’s iPhone Forum, so you get another chance to win over in his thread. And I’m off to WMExperts for the (gulp!) HTC FUZE. Help me!

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[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! Full contest rules here!]

Join us for the first of two special Smartphone Round Robin Roundtables! This week, Casey, Kevin, Rene, Jennifer, and Dieter all come together to discuss three of the Smartphone Round Robin devices: The iPhone 3G, the Treo Pro, and the BlackBerry Bold!

Music: Our Slanted Voices by DoKashiteru

[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! Full contest rules here!]

Of all the reviews I have to write as part of the Smartphone Experts Round Robin, I have a feeling this one is going to be the hardest. See, I was a Palm OS user since the Palm V and stuck with the platform through the Treo 680, before switching to the original iPhone.

That, year after year after year, Palm still hasn’t been able to ship a successor to Palm OS Garnet is inconceivable to me to the degree that what I’m now holding in my hand, gorgeous and powerful though it may be — isn’t a Palm, isn’t a Treo. Not really. I was funny about that in my video. I’m actually more than a little sad about it real life.

The Treo 800 series should really be running Palm OS 2.0 “Nova”. Since it’s not, however, I’m reviewing an HTC handset running Windows Mobile 6.1 — something I’ll be doing almost immediately again with the HTC FUZE/PRO.

How to handle that? To avoid redundancy, I’m going to stick reviewing hardware — a front facing Qwerty this time, slider the next — and breaking up the software into two parts. This review (and thanks to Dieter for the idea!) will focus on the traditional Palm core — the four pillars of PIM (Personal Information Management). The FUZE review will cover everything else Windows Mobile (media, apps, maps, etc.)

And I’m going to begin, after the break!

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[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! Full contest rules here!]

Like all good things, bad things, and flummoxing things — all thing in general I suppose — my time with the Palm Treo Pro (see video preview) will be ending shortly, whereby shortly I mean this weekend when my final review goes up an I ship this hot little handset on to Android Casey for his turn at the non-Palm, not-Treo, arguably Pro device.

In the meantime, however, I should like to ask you, our readers, what if any questions you might have about it. What would you like to see better explored? Compared more directly with the iPhone? Put to the torture test?

Let me know in the comments and you’ll also get another chance to win our iPhone 3G prize pack.

(And remember to head on over to our sibling sites for more chances to win a Blackberry Bold, Palm Treo Pro, WinMo HTC FUZE, and Android G1!)

[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! Full contest rules here!]

The Smartphone Experts Round Robin‘ is slamming into round 2! While I’ve been having fun with the Palm Treo Pro, uber-gadgeteer Dieter has been restoring his child-like sense of wonder with Apple’s iPhone 3G.

Says Dieter, horned WMExperts hat firmly in place:

The real story between Windows Mobile and the iPhone platform is this: the iPhone has elegance while Windows Mobile has power, versatility, and openness. It’s that last one that’s clearly becoming a bigger factor in my mind as time goes on (as it is with the entire the entire WMExperts Team). Podcast downloading is the touchstone example of the moment, but there are plenty of others. I’ll get into it quite a bit more in the final review, but for now, sit back and watch my video first take.

Is he right? And if he is, do we want to live in a world so wrong? Go on over and tell him what you think!

Remember, each SPE site is giving away their signature smartphone and accessories, so it’s not just an iPhone 3G up for grabs! Every day you comment on Dieter’s video, or my thread in the TreoCentral Forum, you get two more chances to win a smartphone (and accessories!)

[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! More below!]

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I loved Palm devices and used them as my “main brain” from the Palm V all the way to the Palm 680, before transitioning to the first iPhone. But here’s the thing, I don’t feel like I left Palm — I feel like they left me. Will the Palm Treo Pro be enough to lure me back?

Fair warning: About 1 minute of this preview is done “Zero Punctuation” style (without the salty language, of course!). Apologies to Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw and everyone at the Escapist for the poor (very poor!) parody, and to our readers… er… viewers, but it had to be done!

Check it out, then head on over to Treo Central to help me get this thing working! Every day you post, you get entered to WIN one of FIVE smartphone prize packs! And you can enter each site’s contest, so don’t forget to help Dieter un-harshen his mellow with the iPhone!

Prize details after the jump…

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[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! Full contest rules here!]

You had Google Android G1 questions, we’ll try to provide answers. Unfortunately, we already shipped the Android G1 off to TreoCentral’s Jennifer and we’re moving on to the Palm Treo Pro, so we won’t be able to answer anything we didn’t already find out last week, but for the most part, we’ll try our best to give you an iPhone look at Google handset.

See our answers, after the jump!

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[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! More below!]

So, was Android Casey turned to the Apple iPhone side of the Round Robin, or will the Google G1 from T-Mobile forever control his destiny? Jump on over to his full, final iPhone 3G review to see what he loved, what he hated, and how he treated our beloved iPhone. (And every day you tell him just what you think of his review, you get a chance to win AC’s signature device, the G1 itself).

Since round 2 is now about to start, and Casey’s shipped the iPhone off to WinMo Dieter while Crackberry Kevin has thrown the Palm Treo Pro in my general direction, that’s the end of my incredibly strained Star Wars metaphors (for now!) as well.

Wonder what Dieter will have to say about the iPhone? Can’t imagine what I’ll come up with for the Treo Pro, but remember you can post everyday below to increase your odds of winning an iPhone, and on all the Smartphone Experts sites — we’re giving away 5 different handsets, and accessory packs, this year!

[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! More below!]

Google’s Android is the future of smartphones. At least, it’s one of the possible futures. Alongside the iPhone, it’s the OS I’m most intrigued by, and that the two companies have chosen such different strategies in tackling the future only makes it ever so much more exciting.

The iPhone is an ordered, iconic device made entirely by Apple, with all the integration and fit and finish — and frustratingly capricious omissions — that only a single guiding mind can achieve. Android, by contrast, is chaotic and communal, designed by Google to free developers and fit a multitude of tastes and form-factors — with all the possible confusion and derivation open source has to offer.

Which one is “better” is a ridiculously impossible question to answer — each platform has its strengths and weaknesses and each user their own unique needs and preferences. Frankly, we’re fortunate to live in a time where there are so many truly awesome devices from which to choose. (Even a few years ago — and yes, I’ll say it, pre-iPhone shockwave — things were far, far more bleak.)

For my part, all I can really do is tell you how I use a smartphone, and how well the Android G1 fits that usage bill.

I really need to point out, up front, that the G1 is a beta device. There, I said it. Unlike Windows Mobile or Blackberry OS, which have been on the market for years and years, and the iPhone OS which is already on 2.x, Android has just hit the market with all the promise and problems that inevitably go with that. The Android device I experienced this week will absolutely and without question be blown away by whatever Android device(s) hit the market next year. So, it’s not a fair comparison for Android from the get go, and I beg everyone to remember that when I lay… er… get into it below the fold.

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[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! Full contest rules here!]

We come to it at last. My time with the Android draws to a close. I have but my final review to write and then I ship it off to the next lucky SME editor for him or her to take their turn. Before I let it go, however, Android Casey had the brilliant idea of asking our loyal iPhone readers for questions!

Anything you want to know about the Google Android G1? Anything you want to see? Anything you’re even a tad curious about? Anything you want to see compared to the iPhone?

Let me know in the comments and not only will you get another change to win our awesome prize pack, I’ll do my darndest to get you the info you not only need, but so richly deserve.

(Also remember to head on over to our sibling sites for more chances to win a Blackberry Bold, Palm Treo Pro, WinMo HTC FUZE, and Android G1!)